Jefferson Swivel and Secretary

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Chair Leg Splitting/Turning

Here's a video I made showing how I make a chair leg start to finish (not including the time in the kiln for drying the tenon). I love turning legs and when they come out as slick as this one did its even better.

I have to make about 40 or so of these and by the time I'm close to the end I'll be able to turn one in about 10 minutes. Repetition is what normally drives me in the opposite direction while building furniture, but for chairs, I get so much joy from seeing the next one look better that I am kinda disappointed when I've done the last set of legs.

3 comments:

Great video, thanks for posting! I have a question, which perhaps you can answer. I have two fruitwood logs of about six feet in length, one pear and another cherry that I rescued from a place where now stands a new parking lot. Would you recommend the same splitting technique for me to rough out board lengths? I plan to make gunstocks from the board lengths.

Yeah I think you could use the same process to make your gunstocks. I would just make sure you make the splits anywhere from 3/4 to 1" wider than what you need finished in case the wood runs out on you. If its good straight grain you shouldn't have much of an issue but just to be safe I would add a little extra.